Maurice Chevalier’s rendition of Thank Heaven for Little Girls may be the best known tune from the Best Picture Oscar-winner Gigi from 1958, but it was the romantic lead of the film, Louis Jourdan, who crooned the title song. It was Jourdan’s best-known role, but the French actor had a long, distinguished career, which began in Europe in the late 1930s. During World War II he joined the French underground and his film career came to a halt when he refused to act in Nazi propaganda films. He came to Hollywood where some of his notable film roles included Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), Three Coins In A Fountain (1954), and Can-can (1960). He played the 007 villain Kamal in Octopussy in 1983 and I remember him starring in a terrific adaption of Dracula that was filmed for the BBC in 1977. Louis Jourdan died on Valentine’s Day at his home in Beverly Hills,
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French actor Louis Jourdan, who enjoyed a long and varied career playing debonair men and a James Bond villain, has died. He was 93.

Jourdan began acting in his native France in the late 1930s, though World War II put many of his early productions in jeopardy. He was invited to be part of his first American film in 1946, when legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick cast him in Alfred Hitchcock's 1947 flick "The Paradine Case," alongside his wife, the late Berthe Frederique "Quique" Jourdan.

"Louis Jourdan, a handsome, sad-eyed French actor who worked steadily in films and on television in Europe and the United States for better than five decades, as a romantic hero in movies like Gigi and later as a suave villain in movies like Octopussy, died on Friday at his home in Beverly Hills," reports Terrence Rafferty in the New York Times. We also remember Lizabeth Scott, star of films noir in the 1940s and 1950s; screenwriter Stewart Stern (Rebel Without a Cause, Rachel, Rachel and Sybil); media journalist David Carr; actor Bryant Crenshaw (Gummo); and writer and producer Robert Blees (Magnificent Obsession). »
- David Hudson
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However he's probably best remembered for his role as the exiled Afghan prince and villain Kamal Khan in the often underrated yet memorable Roger Moore-led 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy". The actor is one of the few to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work.

Louis Jourdan -- who played Afghan prince Kamal Khan in "Octopussy" -- has died at the age of 93. Jourdan reportedly died at his home in Beverly Hills Saturday ... but details surrounding how he passed weren't immediately available. The French actor also famously played the role of Gaston in "Gigi" ... and his character Khan in the James Bond flick will go down in history as one of 007's best adversaries. In 2010, Jourdan was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in L.
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For audiences in the 1940s and 50s, Louis Jourdan’s incredible good looks and mellifluous Gallic purr seemed to sum up everything that was sexy and enticing about Frenchmen. As a result, he became the most sought-after French actor since Charles Boyer. Though perhaps this hampered him, stymying opportunities to extend his dramatic range, any actor who was constantly in demand by both French studios and Hollywood producers had a lot to be grateful for.

When Jourdan, who has died aged 93, played the consummate bon vivant in Vincente Minnelli’s Gigi (1958), he became an international celebrity. The film, which co-starred Maurice Chevalier and Leslie Caron, won nine Oscars, including best picture. Though the best-known of its Lerner and Loewe numbers was Chevalier’s Thank Heaven for Little Girls,
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Louis Jourdan, a veteran actor who starred in such films as “Gigi” and “Octopussy,” died in Beverly Hills at age 93, his friend and official biographer Olivier Minne said Sunday.
“He embodied French elegance and Hollywood offered him the parts to go with that,” Minne told news agency Agence France Press.
Also Read: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2015 (Photos)
The actor died of natural causes at his Southern California home on Saturday, Minne said.
Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France in 1921, and studied at the École Dramatique.
He was best known for his role in the 1958 musical “Gigi” and as.
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Hollywood has had many quintessential young Englishmen, but from the late 1940s through the early '60s, there was only one quintessential young Frenchman: Louis Jourdan.
The star of the 1958 Best Picture Oscar winner, Gigi, whose film roles also included those in Madame Bovary, Three Coins in the Fountain, The Swan, The V.I.P.S and Can-Can, Jourdan died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, reports Variety. He was 93.
As was told in a 1985 People profile, Jourdan - real name Gendre - and his two brothers grew up in the South of France, where their parents managed hotels in Cannes, Nice and Marseilles.
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The French actor passed away in his Beverly Hills home on Saturday (February 14), according to widely-published media reports.

Jourdan is known for his role in the 1958 musical Gigi, as well as his role as villain Kamal in the James Bond outing Octopussy.

"He was the last French figure of the Hollywood golden age. And he worked with so many of the greatest actors and directors," friend and biographer Olivier Minne told Variety. Minne was creating a documentary about the star.

Louis Jourdan, who crafted a Hollywood acting career in the footsteps of fellow dapper Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer and is best remembered for the musical “Gigi” and as the villain in James Bond pic “Octopussy,” has died at 93. According to his friend and biographer Olivier Minne, he died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills.

Jourdan offered a certain effortless charm that worked equally well in light heroic roles and more sinister ones.

“He was the last French figure of the Hollywood golden age. And he worked with so many of the greatest actors and directors,” said Minne, who is working on a documentary and a book about Jourdan.

In Vincente Minnelli’s 1958 musical confection “Gigi,” Jourdan starred with Leslie Caron and Chevalier in an effort from the “My Fair Lady” team of Lerner & Loewe, turning the Collette tale into a Frenchified version of “Pygmalion.” The New York Times said,
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Louis Jourdan, who crafted a Hollywood acting career in the footsteps of fellow dapper Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer and is best remembered for the musical “Gigi” and as the villain in James Bond pic “Octopussy,” has died at 93. According to his friend and biographer Olivier Minne, he died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills.

Jourdan offered a certain effortless charm that worked equally well in light heroic roles and more sinister ones.

“He was the last French figure of the Hollywood golden age. And he worked with so many of the greatest actors and directors,” said Minne, who is working on a documentary and a book about Jourdan.

In Vincente Minnelli’s 1958 musical confection “Gigi,” Jourdan starred with Leslie Caron and Chevalier in an effort from the “My Fair Lady” team of Lerner & Loewe, turning the Collette tale into a Frenchified version of “Pygmalion.” The New York Times said,
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